Posted on 08/11/2018 3:39:55 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen
On this day in 1973, American Graffiti, a nostalgic coming-of-age tale set on the streets and steeped in the car-centric culture of suburban California, is released in theaters across the United States. The movie went on to become a sleeper hit. --SNIP-- The 1970s saw a boom in classic-car restoration, even as more and more Americans were driving Japanese imports. The era also saw an increasing number of lowridersor classic cars or trucks with suspensions that had been modified so that they rode as low to the ground as possible
(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...
Only 12 in 1973 but I remember seeing the movie at a Drive-in theatre (likely a year after its release). I have the soundtrack downloaded to my phone.
I'm from the "anti-muscle car" regime; I owned a Lotus. It could still scare the 'you know what' out of you going around "dead man's curve!"
Like my father and my son, I graduated to aircraft. Ever go Mach .95? (Without joining the military?)(Please forgive the vanity content, I need a short escape from elective politics!)
I, however, decided to put my money and time into building a bike. This isn't it, but it resembles it:
“Where were you in ‘73? Did you have a muscle car?”
I was still riding a bicycle. But it had chopper fork extensions I made out of electrical conduit.
That was when America was still America ie before Obama.
Bump
The 60s was a wonderful time to be a teenager.
Yes, it was.”
It was but 50’s even better.
IMO, the massive change in culture came in 1967. I like to compare movies made in ‘65-66 and compare them to movies made after ‘67.
Movies of the former had an innocence in their trying to be cool whereas the latter were all flower power, psychedelic and rebellion.
“and steeped in the car-centric culture of suburban California,”
It was car centric everywhere then.
yep...
Trivia question: Who was the “mysterious blonde” in the T-Bird?
it was set in 1962. an equivalent film today would be a nostalgic look at 2007. Pre-Obamanation America.
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Definitely something to be nostalgic about....Pre-0bamanaion America.
Seriously...a time before we worried about Socialism being accepted by HALF of the country, the homo agenda taking over, illegals invading at rapid pace, etc, etc.
Suzanne Sommers.
After that as films became, say more coarse, the drop off in movie attendance accelerated.
I would say 1966 is the year to start with and the film “Blow Up” grabbed the headlines. Kind of Mod Murder film in London that was starting to push the envelope and the trend starting picking up steam from there.
Then we get to the film that I think really heralded the real decline into total vulgarism and that was “Midnight Cowboy”, a film even today I won't watch and I was about 13 when that came out.
From that year on movie attendance really started dropping and has recovered. In the mid 1930’s an amazing 85 million people a week attended the movies.
If the studios had that kind of attendance today that would be ecstatic. But the studios abandoned the family market in favor of the film makers who claimed they were making “Art” instead of films people really wanted to see.
The left has no sense of humor. Offended by anything, Mel Brooks could not make a movie today like he did in the 1970s.
$2.99 or $3.00/gal. Upstate New York.
The phones lit up and Capitol Records rushed the single out.
The Beatles hit like a nuclear bomb. Within a few weeks, all of U.S. Top 40 radio was playing anything Beatles they could get their hands on.
Then quickly came the rest of the British Invasion groups: Herman's Hermits, Dave Clark 5, The Animals, The Zombies, The Hollies and an up-and-coming "bad boy" band called The Rolling Stones. Among many others.
Even the Gilligan's Island TV show got into the act, featuring a Beatles-like band called "The Mosquitoes" in one of their episodes.
What was funny about the early days of The Beatles was how all the older people at the time dismissed them as unserious musicians who apparently couldn't even tune their guitars properly and wouldn't last very long. "Beatles go back to England" was the refrain.
Yet The Beatles were incredibly sophisticated and seasoned musicians who not only turned pop music upside down but knew how to handle the press as well. The press conference they gave when they arrived at JFK (to do the Ed Sullivan shows) was shocking at the time. After it was done, the clueless media had no idea what just hit them.
The Beatles at JFK....1964
7th February 1964 - The Beatles arrive at JFK airport in New York for their first US performances - this was the press conference that took place...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeVK5xm_Z2I&frags=pl%2Cwn
This was not the polite "Yes sir, yes m'am" style of Elvis Presley!
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